[AgentX]

Hi, all--been a while since I've posted...hope everyone's well.

Finally had a nice exhaust made up for my bike, replacing one I welded up with some guys in a shipping container in West Africa.

But with the change has come white smoke coming from the junction of the head and pipe, and oil spray on the front fender, downtube, and header.  Smells like burning oil, too.  I think, frankly, this may have always been the case to some extent, but the pipe wrap I had on the old exhaust (to hide its ugliness) mostly absorbed it.  Took the pipe off and there was oil all over the shim encircling the pipe and the port itself.

This could only be coming from the rocker box, via

1) a crack
2) a bad valve guide

 yeah?

Bike runs fine otherwise.

[High On Octane]

A. Is the old pipe all coked up, particularly near the inlet of the exhaust?

B. Do you physically see oil running down the motor?  Or just a must as you mentioned?

Misting out of the exhaust, yes likely a bad valve seal/guide.  Running down the motor, you'll have to wash the motor clean and run it to pinpoint the leak.

[AgentX]

It's a mist, but I can see a few beads have run down the pipe at some point.  Bad guide is my thought, and actually my hope vs. a crack in the head itself.

Don't have the old pipe.  I don't think it was particularly coked up.  Every time I've been in the exhaust port previously, it's been dry and sooty.

[AgentX]

https://youtu.be/KHQSsqd8nAI

[ace.cafe]

Check the rockerbox gasket and the oil line above the exhaust. Oil will run down.

It is very unlikely that much oil would be coming from a valve guide and then escaping from the exhaust joint.

[AgentX]

Hi, Ace-

It's not running on the outside of the head as far as I have observed while it's idling (and smoking), nor have I seen evidence of it after riding.  Only the spray from the exhaust/header junction and the oozing along the underside of pipe. 

Hopefully the video helps illustrate this.

Chumma may be down here in a week or two, so maybe he can take a look.

[AgentX]

If I can manage, today I'll get the tank off, take off the rocker box, and pour some oil in to see if/where it drains.

[ace.cafe]

Pull your spark plug and look at it.
If it is a valve guide, the piston and chamber and spark plug will all be oily, and there will be tons of smoke coming out the tailpipe when it is running.

[AgentX]

Will do.

There's a huge plume of white smoke at start, which I used to attribute solely to wet-sumping, but it abates after idling a bit and all I get is the smoke out of the header junction.

[Arizoni]

Pull your spark plug and look at it.
If it is a valve guide, the piston and chamber and spark plug will all be oily, and there will be tons of smoke coming out the tailpipe when it is running.

Will this be true if the intake valve guide seal is OK and it's only the exhaust valve guide that's leaking?

I've been wrong before but I'm betting the oil is coming from the rocker arm cover.  Especially if it is getting blown onto the front fender (mudguard).

[AgentX]

I ended up opting to take my daughter for a 45-min ride on the bike.  Had to put the pipe back on...wiped out all the oil that was inside the port and on the header.  Had a little smoke during the ride but not a lot, also not a lot of white smoke out of the muffler on starting.

Did pull the plug and it looked dark but dry, to be expected as I know it still has richer winter jetting in it.

Still no sign of external weeping at the rocker box, feed banjo, or anywhere else.

Hrm.  Still interested to take a look inside the rocker box.

[Stanley]

I just had a similar experience with my 2000 Bullet. White smoke, spray from headpipe joint with smoke.

My first wet sump.

[AgentX]

Well, I took the pipe off, wiped out the pools of oil in the exhaust port, and reinstalled pipe.  Seems to be running fine, smoke-free.

Can't understand how all that oil got there, unless the world's worst wet sump forced that much oil up past the rings and out the valve?!

I guess I should stop worrying about it and ride, keeping an eye out for reoccurrence.

[AgentX]

Nope, wishful thinking.

After letting it idle for 3-4 min I shut it down.  Came back and fired it up 20 min later.  Already had oil seeping out of the pipe/head junction.  Huge plume of white burned smelling smoke on startup.  Wisps of smoke starting to come from the head again.

[AgentX]

And no, there is zero oil weeping out of the rocker box or the oil feed banjo.  Totally dry and the oil is coming from the side/underside of the pipe.